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The chairman of Honeywell Group, Oba Otudeko, on Wednesday engaged the staff of Channels Television in a hide-and-seek game at the premises of the Federal High Court in Lagos.

Mr. Otudeko was in court where he had been summoned to testify in a N5.5 billion debt suit involving Honeywell Flour Mills Plc and its sister companies – Anchorage Leisures Ltd and Siloam Global Ltd – against Ecobank Nigeria Ltd.

But after leaving the witness box, Mr. Otudeko, sporting his trademark native Yoruba attire, was confronted with the challenge of how to evade television cameras waiting outside the court.

As his aides marched alongside him out of the court room, the sight of a TV camera sent them scurrying back to the rear of the building to exit through the back gate but the photojournalist had raced just in time to meet them there.

The Honeywell boss and his group beat a quick retreat and stood at a safe distance from the camera.

The 45 minute-drama saw the Channels TV’s reporter and cameraman station themselves at both exit points of the court premises, a move which left Mr. Otudeko and his aides scratching their heads behind the administrative building as they frantically plotted a safe passage.

At some points during the drama, some of the business mogul’s aides confronted the cameraman with questions of “Why are you doing this?” while simultaneously erecting a wall between the camera and their principal.

A mild scuffle was averted after one of the aides lunged at the camera in a bid to force the cameraman to stop recording the scene.

Mr. Otudeko eventually made his exit at about 11.40 am, after his aides erected a human shield around him as he walked to his waiting car outside the court’s premises.

An earlier overture to the court’s security guards to allow Mr. Otudeko’s driver pull up inside the court compound was turned down.

The drama provided a side attraction on a day when Mr. Otudeko made a physical appearance in court to avoid a bench warrant being issued against him.

While standing in the witness box and making his opening statement before the judge, the business mogul said it was a “first experience for me and I’m delighted to be here, to see all of you in professional practice.”

His lawyer, Bode Olanipekun, said the witness, Mr. Otudeko, had adopted his statement and that they were ready to proceed.

However, when Mr. Divine asked the witness to introduce himself and state his occupation and qualifications, Mr. Olanipekun objected to “that line of questioning.”

He said the defendant’s counsel’s right during his examination-in-chief is limited to adoption of the witness’s statement.

“In objecting, I refer Your Lordship to the subpoena issued by this court on the application of the defendant. That subpoena was issued by the defendant and it requested the witness to give evidence on behalf of the defendant,” Mr. Olanipekun said.

“If I may backtrack a little bit, the precursor was an application filed in April 2017 praying the court for an additional witness. So the witness is the witness of the defendant.”

But Mr. Divine argued that in normal cases where witnesses are not subpoenaed, the party calling the witness has the unfettered right to question the witness.

He said he was served the witness’s written statement on oath on Thursday morning and had not looked at it.

“The witness in question is our witness. The question I put to the witness being an introductory question is allowed under the law, where he lives, works, his qualifications” Mr. Divine argued.

“To that extent, I submit that the objection to my line of questioning is preemptory.”

But the judge sustained the plaintiff’s objection and told the defendant’s lawyer to lead the witness to adopt his statement after which he would undergo cross-examination and re-examination.

Following the judge’s ruling, Mr. Divine insisted he would not lead Mr. Otudeko to adopt his statement and objected to a move by his lawyer to cross-examine him.

“We have gotten what we want and we do not want to lead the witness anymore. We hereby apply for his discharge,” Mr. Divine said.

Mr. Olanipekun made repeated efforts at cross examining Mr. Otudeko to prove that Ecobank’s managing director was present at a meeting where it was agreed that his client’s company would pay N3.5 billion out of the N5.5 billion debt allegedly owed the bank as “full and final payment of the indebtedness.”

But the lawyer continued to insist that a witness whose statement was not adopted in court could not be cross examined.

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Ben Ezeamalu is an Assistant Managing Editor and the Head of Lagos Operations/Metro Editor at PREMIUM TIMES. A graduate of Microbiology from the University of Jos, Ben won the 2015 Africa Fact-Check Awards and was a runner-up in the 2014 CNN/Multichoice African Journalists of the Year.

Twitter: @callmebenfigo.

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